Books, Movies, and Chinese Food

Summary from Goodreads : When Ellie Kendall tragically loses her husband she feels her life is over. But eventually she’s ready for a new start – at work, that is. She doesn ’t need a new man when she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company... Zack McLaren seems to have it all, but the girl he can’t stop thinking about won’t give him a second glance. If only she’d pay him the same attention she lavishes on his dog. Moving to North London, Ellie meets neighbour Roo who has a secret of her own. Can the girls sort out their lives? Guilt is a powerful emotion, but a lot can happen in a year in Primrose Hill... Ever since I discovered Jill Mansell's books a few years ago, I cannot get enough of her. I love her style of writing. I love how she makes you get invested in her characters and you fall in love with everyone and want to know their story. That's just what she does in her newest book with Ellie, a young widow who is finally beginning to start her life over aft...

Summary from BN.com: In the steamy city of New Orleans in 1974, Amalise Catoir sees Phillip Sharp as a charming, magnetic artist, unlike any man she has known. A young lawyer herself, raised in a small-town Christian home and on the brink of a career with a large firm, she is strong and successful, yet sometimes too trusting and whimsical. Ama's rash decision to marry Phillip proves to be a mistake as he becomes overly possessive, drawing his wife away from family, friends, and her faith. His insidious, dangerous behavior becomes her dark, inescapable secret.In this lawyer's unraveling world, can grace survive Ama's fatal choice? What would you do when prayers seem to go unanswered, faith has slipped away, evil stalks, and you feel yourself forever dancing on shattered glass? I have been waiting a LONG time to read this book it seems. Ever since I finished reading Pamela Ewen's The Moon in the Mango Tree over three years ago, I knew that I would want to read more fro...

So in case you missed it, I posted a survey last week asking my readers their thoughts and opinions on my blog. I was looking forward to seeing the responses and yes, I geeked out every time I got a new response. How long have you been reading my blog? 4-5 years 21% 2-3 years 46% 1 year or less 21% This is my first visit! 4% I was expecting this number. It's only in the past few years that I've really become more involved with the book blogging community outside of the Christian fiction blogosphere. Where are you from? US 88% Canada 4% Europe 4% Asia 0% Australia 4% Other 0% Again not surprising. But I am glad for my foreign readers! How are you reading my blog? Came straight to website 4% Through RSS Feed (ie. Google Reader) 50% Through Email 8% Link on Twitter, Facebook, GetGlue or other social media network 7 29% I have no idea how I got here 0% The majority of readers read the blog through RSS feed which is something I do with other blog...

Summary from BN.com: A widow with two small children, Amelia Beiler is struggling to make ends meet. She is running her late husband's business, but it's not what she was raised to do, which is run a home. When she gets an offer for the business from Eli Fischer, she's only too relieved to consider it-especially when it looks like Eli's interest might include more than just the shop. But when she begins to experience strange physical symptoms and is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, it's difficult not to question God's will. If she pursues the treatment she believes in, she risks going under the bann. But how can she allow Eli to court her when she can't promise him a future? I was a bit surprised when I started reading this book. I was expecting the book to be heavily focused on quilting since I thought that's how the book was being advertised and was surprised that it wasn't. There is focus on Amish at the end of the book where you can make a q...

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book! You never know when I might play a wild card on you! Today's Wild Card author is: Kim Cash Tate and the book: Cherished Thomas Nelson (August 30, 2011) ***Special thanks to Audra Jennings, Senior Media Specialist, The B&B Media Group for sending me a review copy.*** ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kim Cash Tate was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. Her mother, a manager with AT&T, and her father, an educator, divorced when she was young. Even after the divorce, one thing her parents agreed on was the importance...

Summary from BN .com: In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year- olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, ...

Mailbox Monday was created by Marcia of A Girl and Her Books and is being hosted by Amused by Books this month. Here are the books I got this week. For Review: The Last Blind Date by Linda Yellin Tris & Izzie by Mette Ivie Harrison Survivors by James Wesley Rawles Wishes and Stitches by Rachael Herron Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos Finding Our Way Home by Charlene Ann Baumbich The Color of Rain by Michael & Gina Spehn House of Secrets by Tracie Peterson The Baker's Wife by Erin Healy Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin The Measure of Katie Calloway by Serena Miller A Necessary Deception by Laurie Alice Eakes Contest win: A Million Suns by Beth Revis The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers From Paperbackswap: Sketchy Behavior by Erynn Mangum

Summary from Christianbook.com: Ten years ago, Emma Malloy fled Dublin for Boston as a battered woman, escaping the husband who scarred her beautiful face. The physical and emotional wounds have faded with time, and her life is finally full of purpose and free from the pain of her past. But when she falls for her friend Charity's handsome and charming brother, Sean O'Connor, fear and shame threaten to destroy her. Could Sean and Emma ever have a future together? Or is Emma doomed to live out the rest of her life denying the only true love she's ever known? Since I have enjoyed most of Julie Lessman's other books, including the first book in this series, I really tried to give this book a chance. I got about halfway and then I had to quit. I had gotten so irritated and annoyed that I couldn't finish. It takes a great deal to stop me from reading a book and I'm really sad that I just couldn't finish this one. There were several things that bothered me abou...

Well it's that time of the year again! The Fall Into Reading Challenge is here! Katrina at Callapidder Days is issuing out the command to get our reading lists out and done! I started these twice-yearly challenges because I thought it would be fun to share my love of reading with other bloggers and to push myself to read some books I might not otherwise read, or to finish some books I had started and then abandoned & stashed under my bed. I thought there were probably others out there who would appreciate the accountability and encouragement that a challenge can provide. And along the way, I discovered there were lots of people who — whether they needed the extra push or not — loved to share what they planned or hoped to read during the upcoming months. So that’s the point: sharing some reading goals with all the other participants and doing it in a way that works for you. If you want to push yourself, go for it! Or if you just want to share w...

Summary from BN.com: Naomi's Gift re-introduces twenty-four-year-old Naomi King, who has been burned twice by love and has all but given up on marriage and children. As Christmas approaches---a time of family, faith, and hope for many others---Naomi is more certain than ever her life will be spent as an old maid, helping with the family's quilting business and taking care of her eight siblings. Then she meets Caleb, a young widower with a 7-year-old daughter, and her world is once again turned upside-down. Naomi's story of romantic trial and error and youthful insecurities has universal appeal. Author Amy Clipston artfully paints a panorama of simple lives full of complex relationships, and she carefully explores cultural differences and human similarities, with inspirational results. I can't believe that it's time to break out the Christmas books already. I mean technically summer JUST ended! I guess it's never too early though to get into the holiday spirit...

Congrats to the winner of Swept Away : Christy from Southern Sassy Things

Summary from BN .com: As a social worker, Alison Taylor has a passion for protecting children and seeing that justice is served on their behalf. But when she starts getting harassing phone calls and bizarre "gifts," it seems she may be the one in need of protection. When her tormentor's attentions take a violent turn, her brother Cole comes to her aid, along with his new partner, an ex-Navy SEAL, Detective Mitch Morgan. As her relentless stalker turns up the heat, Mitch takes a personal interest in the case. Protecting Alison has become more than just a job—because his own happiness now depends on keeping her safe. I never realized the danger that people who work in child protective services face every day. Alison is in danger throughout the book because someone thinks their life was ruined by what she did in protecting a family. Because of the abusive nature of the person they are unable to grasp the fact that they are the ones at fault. Instead they turn all their r...

Summary from BN.com: Before Liz Lemon, before "Weekend Update," before "Sarah Palin," Tina Fey was just a young girl with a dream: a recurring stress dream that she was being chased through a local airport by her middle-school gym teacher. She also had a dream that one day she would be a comedian on TV. She has seen both these dreams come true. At last, Tina Fey's story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon — from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence. Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we've all suspected: you're no one until someone calls you bossy. Oh my gosh, this was one of the funniest books that I have read all year. I'm a big Tina Fey fan. I loved her on Saturday Night Live and every t...

Today is my 111st birthday! Oh wait wrong book....I just turned 5 years old. My blog that is. That's right. Books, Movies and Chinese Food turns officially 5 today! (Never mind the date of the first post on this blog, I wrote that the day after and just backdated it). Five years is a long time in the book blogging world. To paraphrase the band 311 "I've been here a while, ain't going nowhere". Yes I'm now an oldie when it comes to book blogging. I see so many blogs being a year or less old and I feel like the senior in high school that has stayed back for several years. As al ways, the reason why I started blogging was thanks to Camy Tang's blog which inspired m e to write my own blog. My main goal was to blog about the books I read because I figured I'd like others to know about the good books that were ou t there . I honestly can't believe that it's lasted this long and I hope to keep going strong. I had no idea that there ...